20 Point Buy
Suli
Order of the Warrior Samurai (Sword Saint) 10 Horizon Walker 3
Lv. 1-6 Samurai Lv.7-9 Horizon Walker Lv.10-13 Samurai
Starting
Str 17 (15+ 2 Racial)
Dex12
Con 15
Int 10 (12 –2 Racial)
Wis 10
Cha 14
Level 13
Str 22 (17+ 1 + 4)
Dex 12
Con 20 (15+1+4)
Int 10
Wis 14 (10+4)
Cha 18 (14+4)
Character is focusing on bluff capitalizing on power strike/wave strike for Iaijutsu flavor since the actual Iaijutsu Strike from sword saint is difficult to pull off at low levels.
Between levels 7-9 Dip into Horizon Walker in order to get Astral Dominance to gain Dimension Door.
Late game 1st round of combat will be spent “casting” Way of the Samurai as well as Challenge. Round 2 DD with Sword Saint’s Iaijutsu Strike.
If this campaign extends to 15 Dimensional Savant and Dreadful Carnage would be added for double the intimidate effect.
Equipment: WIP
Headband of Mental Prowess Wis, Cha
Belt of Physical Might Str, Con
+2 Keen Katana
(1)Power Attack
(3)Wave Strike
(5)Endurance
(6)Furious Focus
(7)Incremental Elemental Assault
(9)Dimensional Agility
(11)Dimensional Assault
(13)Dimensional Dervish
(15) Dimensional Savant, Dreadful Carnage
I know this is rather unoptimized as I'm striving for the flavor of a teleporting Iaijutsu Stike but I'm open to anything that'll make the concept more effective.
The War Scholar monk archtype sounds like it would work here, and it gets you abundant step at level 7 while staying single class instead of level 9 when going in HW. You also gets the inquisitors solo tactics and you can effectively make any terrain a favored terrain with TONS of variation with the rapid planning ability. The archtype gets rid of flurry of blows and all the unarmed strike bonuses for martial weapon prof. and the ability to use light armor and still use fast movement and monk AC bonuses. So you can still have the look of a samurai but get the abilities earlier and (at least to me) with more freedom.
so you are teleporting near someone, tickling him with an attack that deal the same amount of damage of a single sneack attack of a rogue, then going away. And you can't do more than once per day on the same target. Even if you make it work, I can't see you going far with this character.
My bad, was not paying attention and noticed my archtype was 3rd party.
For teleporting Iaijutsu Strike to work, you're going to need to be at least a 10th level Samurai; before that point, making an Iaijutsu Strike is a Full-Round action. In addition, Iaijutsu Strike is limited by the number of times per day that you can use the Challenge ability, which means only the big bads are going to ever really get the full force of that attack. Here are some suggestions:
First, drop Order of the Warrior and pick up Order of the Cockatrice. There are several reason for this; first, you get a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls against anything that is suffering from a fear effect (such as demoralized) and you get Dazzling Display as a bonus feat.
Second, only stick for Samurai for 3 levels; long enough to get Weapon Expertise. The reason you want this ability is that you can pick up Wave Strike with it, which allows you to make a feint attempt as a swift action during the turn you draw your weapon.
Afterwards, stick with Rogue and go for either the Thug archetype or the Rake archetype. Thug is probably the better option; you lose Trapfinding for an ability that increases the duration of any demoralized conditions you cause, plus allows you to frighten creatures you demoralize for 4 or more rounds at a cost. Later, it trades Trap Sense for Brutal Beating, which allows you to give up 1d6 points of Sneak Attack in order to sicken your opponent for a decent number of rounds. If you choose Rake, you get the ability to reduce your Sneak Attack damage in order to make a free demoralize attempt and gain bonuses on the check. Instead of Trap Sense, you get a bonus on some of your face skills.
Continuing onward, you can easily go for your dip in Horizon Walker for the Dimensional Derverish feats. Before this, you are probably going to want to pick up Improved Feint and Greater Feint so your Wave Strike can cause your opponent to become demoralized for multiple attacks as a swift action. If you go far enough into the Dimensional Dervish feat chain that you can flank with yourself, you could easily grab your sneak attack on round 1 with dimension door. The biggest flaw with this build is that it is incredibly MAD (multiple ability score dependent), but it sounds like a blast to play.
Possibly a better move would be to multiclass fighter after 3 levels in Samurai; especially Lore Warden, as the only thing you give up compared to the Samurai class that hurts is Armor Training, but that can be fixed with some mithril armor. That way, you could grab a bunch of feats and do things like Power Attack / Weapon Specialization charges; levels of fighter assure that you'll have feats to spare before entering the Horizon Walker class as well.